City could save money with green advances

In Tuesday's story ''Miner Criticizes Pension Plan,'' Sen. John DeFrancisco asks, ''The question is, how do we resolve it?''

Do you mean Syracuse's impending financial crisis, or the state-mandated change in pension contributions? I leave the labor issues to the labor lawyers. However, if ''we'' want to prevent the city from becoming insolvent, may I suggest we start by lowering operating costs: 1) installing programmable (dimmable) LED streetlights throughout the city, saving labor costs, since most now have a 10-year warranty and are designed to last twice that long before needing replacement; 2) installing new, more acceptable ''warm white'' LED lighting in all city buildings and 3) installing solar panels .

These new-fangled, technological advances are all designed to last 20 years with an return on investment of less than two years? So far, we've seen the installation of solar panels on the roof of City Hall Commons as an example of what could be done. That's it. Nothing of substance under the current administration. Such bold action might even put the Emerald City (Syracuse, in case you may have forgotten) into the 21st century by doing more with less. This action may not resolve the underlying pension problem, but it will give city planners some fixed costs when budgeting for the next 20 years. And it would add some of those ''green jobs'' the politicians have been talking about, but doing little about, for the past eight years.